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In The News At Sibos 2014

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As the dust settles from Sibos 2014, delegates may be asking if they missed anything essential. Here are some of the key announcements to emerge during the event:

SWIFT announced that Alliance Lite2 has been extended to business applications, giving certain application providers the opportunity to combine their offerings with SWIFT connectivity. “For end customers this means the ability to reach more banks worldwide, rapid implementation and secure financial communications,” said Juan Martinez, Managing Director, SWIFT Software Business and the SWIFTLab.

SWIFT stated that it would give access to its new KYC Registry free of charge for banks which contribute their own KYC data to the service. Due to be launched at the end of the year, KYC Registry is intended to provide a single source of information relating to correspondent banking. Twelve banks have already signed up to the KYC Registry working group, with additional banks becoming early adopters.

SWIFT also revealed it has delivered a 50% reduction in messaging prices ahead of its 2015 target. SWIFT’s next five year plan, SWIFT 2020, will include a new pricing strategy.

This year’s Innotribe Startup Challenge was won by Epiphyte (Top Startup) and MatchMove (Top Innovator). Epiphyte’s product, cBridge, provides banks with the technology needed for real-time international transactions at a reduced cost. MatchMove, meanwhile, was recognised for its wallet which allows uncarded smartphone users in emerging markets to make purchases.

Notable technology announcements from attending banks included news from Deutsche Bank that it would be making SWIFT’s MyStandards product available through the bank’s Autobahn App Market.

Meanwhile, Bank of America Merrill Lynch is launching Digital Disbursements, a payment solution which will allow companies to send money directly to customer bank accounts using their email address or mobile phone number. The service is available for domestic US payments in the first instance but is expected to be rolled out to other markets in due course.

And Deutsche Bundesbank announced it is working with EBA Clearing to create an XML-based infrastructure for clearing debit card transactions in Europe.

Finally, the SEPA Action Migration Round Table (SMART) published an updated SEPA Direct Debit R-transaction guide. Given that SDD transactions are experiencing higher return and reject rates than legacy European direct debit schemes, the guide is intended to help banks handle exceptions and is an extended version of the guide released at Sibos 2013.